How we ended up here…

The ideas behind the current ideas…

My doctorate in Experimental Psychology (Oxford, under Donald Broadbent) has been tugging at my art strings for decades now, even after doing a subsequent degree in Fine Art (NCAD, Dublin). Research in Psychology has a go-to trick, which is to hold all variables constant except one. That way you can see what changing this ‘independent’ variable does to X, whatever X is. Below I describe some of the ways in which I’ve played with variables in art. The syndetic initiative described on the Home page grew out of this general approach, and its shortcomings.

So…

1 … do you need to see when you paint?

There were a number of public performances where I painted while blindfolded, under instruction.

‘Blindfold painting’ performance, IMMA: Peter FiitzGerald in blindfold, painting, assisted by artists Geraldine O’Neill and Peter Rhoades — ‘Blindfold painting’ performance, IMMA, assisted by artists Geraldine O’Neill and Peter Rhoades, 1996

‘Blindfold painting’; performance, Kerlin Gallery; assisted by artist Oliver Whelan; photo by Abigail O’Brien, 1996

The results themselves are … odd:

Result from IMMA 'blindfold painting'; assisted by Geraldine O'Neill and Peter Rhoades — Result from IMMA ‘blindfold painting’; based on a ‘bad’ photo by me of a museum visitor; painting assisted by Geraldine O’Neill and Peter Rhoades, 1996

Peter FitzGerald: Result of Kerlin ‘blindfold’ performance, under instruction from Oliver Whelan, 1996; image based on a ‘self-portrait’ by Cindy Sherman's ‘Untitled # 67’, 1980, from the 'Untitled' series in which she portrayed herself as someone else, as though in a film — Result of Kerlin ‘blindfold’ performance, under instruction from Oliver Whelan, 1996; image based on a ‘self-portrait’ by Cindy Sherman’s *Untitled # 67*, 1980, from the *Untitled* series in which she portrayed herself as someone else, as though in a film

Variants are possible (especially as there isn’t always a helpful accomplice to deliver instructions), as in ‘blind-painting’ – load up brush, look at image reference, shut eyes, find canvas, do the best you can. Results vary, but tend to be interesting – as here:

‘Blind-painting’ of Connemara landscape; the paint was mixed while sighted, applied while blindfolded; based on a photo taken by me in Connemara on the road to Maam Cross; one of a series of six, oil on canvas, 1998

2 … source material: nice vs not really?

To paint a ‘nice’ painting, start with an attractive something or other that you want to depict. Seems logical, but is it true in practice? In the days when photos were printed onto paper, I gathered a large number of ‘bad’ photos from family and friends. And it turns out that, with reasonably decent brushwork, it’s hard to make a bad painting, even if the source material is poor.

Installation shot of a lot of ‘bad’ paintings, RHA (NCAD Degree show, 1995)

Dinner party, painting from ‘bad’ photo — *Dinner party*, painting from ‘bad’ photo, oil on canvas

Sometimes I combined approaches, as in a this pair from a set of paintings done while looking or not looking:

‘Looking’ and ‘not looking’ versions of paintings done from a 'bad' Polaroid of a Munich meal — ‘Looking’ and ‘not looking’ versions of paintings done from a ‘bad’ Polaroid of a Munich meal, oil on canvas

3 … an oil painting is something unique …

Yes and no…

Wooden trolley constructed to hold 96 paintings based on 12 film stills each painted 8 times, from the film 'Rachel, Rachel'; now in Crawford Art Gallery collection — Wooden trolley constructed to hold 96 paintings (1998 – 2001) based on 12 film stills each painted 8 times, from the film *Rachel, Rachel*; now in Crawford Art Gallery collection; courtesy Crawford Art Gallery

Rachel, Rachel, 1998 – 2001, gloss paint on plywood, 120 x 100 x 60 (detail: two of the 96 paintings based on the film of the same name); courtesy Crawford Art Gallery — *Rachel, Rachel*, 1998 – 2001, gloss paint on plywood, 120 x 100 x 60 (detail: two of the 96 paintings based on the film of the same name); courtesy Crawford Art Gallery

4 … auteurship …

The Rachel, Rachel paintings just mentioned above mess quite a bit with auteurship, and auteurship has been a mainstay of the narrative of Western art since the Renaissance. Here’s another way: if I’m painting blindfolded and under instruction, who is the artist? Moreover, the painting in the Kerlin blindfold performance (described above) is based on a photo by artist / photographer Cindy Sherman of herself as someone else.

And is this a self-portrait?:

Self-portrait drawn under instruction from Abigail O'Brien; the worked was exhibited solely in audio form, in the 'NCAD 250' show in the RHA — ‘Self’-portrait (of me, PF, blindfolded) drawn by me under the instruction of Abigail O’Brien, who was looking at me and telling me what to do; the work was presented solely in audio form, in the *NCAD 250* show in the RHA, 1996

So…?

…I take from the manipulations described above, among others, that is possible to move the probing of how we look at art into the artworks themselves. Forms and patterns and ‘signifiers’ can be played with in multiple ways. An artwork can, I believe, prompt the viewer to attend to the multiple processes occurring between artwork and viewer. That is the point that I want to pursue.

Peter FitzGerald, 2023